Lacey Donohue

A 34-year-old man shot and killed a
72-year-old man he thought was a prowler on Wednesday in Walker County, Ga. But
instead of shooting a prowler, Joe Hendrix shot Ronald Westbrook, an elderly man
with advanced Alzheimer's disease.

According to Sheriff Steve Wilson, at
the time of the shooting, Westbrook had been wandering
lost and confused for over four hours, wearing only a light jacket in sub-freezing temperatures and
walking his two dogs. At around 2:30 a.m., Westbrook was stopped by a sheriff's
deputy as he stood in front of a mailbox; he told the deputy he was just
checking his mail and that he lived up the hill. In fact, Westbrook had lived
at the home years before.

The sheriff left and at 4:00 a.m., Westbrook rang the
doorbell and tried
to open the front door of a nearby home. Hendrix, who had just moved into
the home two weeks before, woke up to the noise and his fiancé called 911 to
report the disturbance. She spoke with the dispatcher for around 10 minutes but before help arrived, Hendrix went outside with a .40 caliber
handgun and saw the elderly man's silhouette outside the house. Hendrix gave
Westbrook a command to stop moving and when he did not, Hendrix fired four
shots, killing the elderly man with fatal shot in the chest.

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When Westbrook was killed, he was
still holding
the mail he had retrieved from the other home.

No charges have been filed against
Hendrix and according to Wilson, Hendrix is "saddened and heartbroken" and will
have to "live with his actions for the rest of his life."

Westbrook's family did not know he
was missing until around
the time the shooting occurred.